Relaxing at Dor beach

Last weekend we had a relaxing afternoon at Dor beach, some 30 km south of Haifa. We went with Canan and Arnold and had a great - and much needed - time eating, relaxing and swimming. This was Enna-Marie's first mediterranean swim, and she greatly enjoyed it! It was also a good preparation for our trip to Rhodes, where we will be off to tomorrow! Here are some pictures...

Latest Tricks... (updated)

It has been such a joy to witness Enna-Marie's developments in recent weeks, and we wish you could all be here to see it with your own eyes... While Maarten was away for a few days in Kyrgyzstan, Menchie taught Enna-Marie to close and open her right hand. Menchie would say: "close-open, close-open", and she would look at her hand with great interest and open and close her palm. She would also turn her left hand around in response to a certain song... And when stretching out our hands and saying "Allah'u'Abha! Enna-Marie", she would stretch out her hand in return and shake ours.

In the meantime she has also learned to roll over while on the bed, crawl backwards for about half a meter, pull herself up to standing when she sits in the box, and her latest trick is that she can clap in her hands when we sing "clap your hands, 1-2-3".

Here is a video:

Standing up Excercises!

Enna-Marie has discovered that the laundry basket is an excellent place to practice her standing up skills. She can now pull herself from sitting in a split second :)

Enna-Marie's first tooth

Following Enna-Marie's seventh (month) birthday, her first tooth started looming on the horizon. Although its been paining her somewhat, it doesn't seem to have been so bad, apart from perhaps one day. While number one is out, and quite sharp already, number two is on its way as you can see from this picture...

Visiting Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez

We spent a relaxing Friday afternoon with the Ramirez'es. Kuya Fred is in town for a few weeks, and we went to have lunch with them. Also Kuya Willi joined us for dinner later on. It was nice to be out of the home for a change, and spend some restful time with them.

My Friend Leah and Me...

"Just the other day, my friend Leah and me were taking a nap in one of the bombshelters of the building in which daddy works... I was sleeping so deeply, that I didn't notice that mommy took a picture of me. But my friend Leah, she actually woke up and curiously looked into the camera. By the way, Leah's parents are both from Mauritius, I heard it's a nice place for holiday".

New Boss in Daddy's Office...

That's right :), pretty soon my dad will be out of work..he he...!

Enna-Marie at seven months...

This is such a cute video that I could not resist putting it on our blog! Enjoy!!

Reading time with Daddy...

Excitedly listening (and talking...)!

Attentively listening to daddy

Daddy I want some more stories please...

The Situation Here...

Despite the situation in the country at the moment, we are doing fine. Enna-Marie is blissfully unaware of what is going on around her, and feels quite secure with either of her parents close by. We hope that the country will quickly return to calm. We request for your prayers.

Farewell Brunch for the Villa's...

Sadly, our dear friends Evelin and Santana have left the World Centre, after almost four years of service. We got our 'marriage group' together one last time at least to say goodbye which was nice. They are now in Estonia, they called us this afternoon to tell us they arrived safely. We miss them already, and hope it won't be long before we will see them again.

We had a farewell brunch for them at Negeen and Victor's place, with OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD blueberry pancakes made by the unstoppable Italian Pasta Chef Victor, OUTSTANDING muffins by Luxembourg's pastry-queen Jamak, DEVELISH Devils-Eggs by Dutchamacallit Martijn (or was he just taking credit for what May actually made??), MOUTHWATERING crackers and cheese by the Japanese/Australian Sushi emperor and empress Shingo and Amelia, and THE-BEST-EVER scrambled eggs by our very own Filipina "Adobolicious" mama Menchie!

May and Shingos' Birthdays...

Our dear friend May recently celebrated her birthday at the beach. Her hubbie Martijn organized a surprise b-b-q party for her. A lot of friends came, and even her sister Shirin, who used to serve here a few years ago, was visiting from South Africa. We had a great evening, and OH, the food was delicious!

The three sisters, Yas, May and Shirin...
Dutch - Brazilian connection with Kirsten, Ana-Gerda, and Melissa... (remember, this is right after the World Cup, where both Holland and Brazil were untimely eliminated...)
Sarah, Carmel, Evelin and Rocco, with Victor in the background...
GROUP-PHOTO!! It seems we have to take one of these at every BWC gathering :)
Kerstens and Schoots...












Another dear friend, Shingo, also celebrated his birthday in STYLE with an afternoon full of games, thanks to Amelia! Friends and family came over to enjoy the day with him. We had a great time!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAY AND SHINGO. Hope we will enjoy many more birthdays with you guys!

Rocco is about to wreck what Amelia had so carefully constructed...
Playing 'For Sale', a simple yet very nice game that Maarten just could not win...

Highlights: every womans dream!

Enna-Marie has a disctint feature (for the moment at least) that makes her the envy of many women: natural highlights ::)). She was born with a few golden streaks in her hair, and they became more pronounced after two or three months. We don't know if they will last, but we're enjoying it for now on her behalf, as she is blissfully unaware of them! Here are two pictures of her hair, this is the best we could do:


Photo without flash:

And one with flash:

Some more visitors...

The Ardjomandi family visited us recently. Khodadad and Veira (and son Ruhullah) from Moldova were visiting their parents Jamshid and Soeki who are serving here at the World Centre. Last year they were also in town, but we could not have them over at our place due to busy schedules. This time we didn't want to miss them, so it was nice to catch up with them and we hope to see them again next time with a new addition to their family..:-)!

Edwin Edpalina and wife Rizalita were also in town recently for pilgrimage. They are originally from the Philippines, but are now pioneering in China. Edwin, who is an old friend of Menchie, is a very talented music teacher. He has been travelling in Asia for several years now, and all the while has been involved in recording Baha'i songs in different languages. During the last gathering with the Filipino friends, he presented to us his travels, showing photos and sharing songs from his albums. Menchie remembered many of these songs (English and Tagalog) from her own children's classes and various gatherings back home in the Philippines. She can't wait to have a copy of these songs to start teaching Enna-Marie!!

FilmLoops

Here's a cool new feature we're trying out. Its called FilmLoop, and it displays sets of up to 30 pictures as a filmstrip in your blog... The first one below is taking the images directly from Flickr, the second one is a loop of selected pictures from our computer...

Short Trip to Kyrgyzstan...

Last week I was fortunate to spend a few days in Kyrgyzstan during another work-related trip. It's a very beautiful country with very high mountains - which I only got to see from a distance - and very warm and friendly people. I met up with Zeinab and Seid, who both used to serve at the Bahá'í World Centre, and made some wonderful new friends as well!

Here are some impressions of the country and the friends I met...

This picture was taken after the first day of the training I facilitated. It is in the backyard of the National Bahá'í Centre. From right to left are Akaki from Georgia, Seper from Uzbekistan, Counsellor Nassimova from Kyrgyzstan, Mahnoz from Tajikistan and myself.
This picture is of the Popovs family, in whose guesthouse I stayed. They are a very nice family, and their daughter, Luda (on the right side), has actually been living in Holland for the last four years or so. She speaks fluent Dutch, and we were able to have a nice conversation about the Faith.
Who would have thought this guy would still be around?? Yes, Mr. Lenin himself, still standing in front of the polytechnic university of Bishkek where one of the meetings was held.
Victoria, who took the time to show me around Bishkek for a few hours and Zeinab who happened to be visiting Bishkek from Kazakhstan.During lunch in a restaurant with a few friends, including Seid who is sitting to my right and Roy sitting accross from me, Counsellor Rouhani, Mahnoz, Akaki and Seper.

The Three Little Ones...

Rocco, Shiori and Enna-Marie were together playing last Thursday. We just want to post these pictures of the three little ones whom we love so dearly. Look how they have grown, Rocco turned 10 months old today, Shiori is 9 months old, while Enna-Marie turned 6 months yesterday.

Half a year!

Today is Enna-Marie's half a year birthday! It is hard to believe that she has been with us already for six months, yet on the other hand the days that there were just two of us also seem quite a long time ago now... We went to Bahji this afternoon, but probably because of the heat Enna-Marie didn't last very long. Here are two pictures we took afterwards in the Visitors' Centre where there is wonderful airconditioning!

















Today is also the first time that she is standing up without our help (but not without the help of the couch!). What an achievement!!

Holland - Ivory Coast 2-1

The Netherlands beat the Ivory Coast this evening, 2-1. The victory was hardly deserved, Ivory Coast was better at times, but leaves the World Cup empty-handed... We watched the game at our newly-wed friends Quddus and Samarih's house. Quddus' Dutch uncle Behrouz - who by the way looks exactly like Guus Hiddink - brought two Holland jerseys as a wedding gift for Quddus and Samarih. Although Samarih is Brazilian, she was quite the support this evening wearing an orange shirt and cheering for the Dutch! Nicholas (who was supporting the Ivory Coast, as the English are obviously less fond of the Dutch than the Brazilians) was also there, and Martijn came over for the second half.

Enna-Marie was dressed in orange for the occassion. She already had orange pants, and this afternoon we bought her an orange shirt as well! At least we've made it to the second round... Lets hope the team's game play will improve in their next match against Argentina! That's going to be a tough one!

Visit of our Friends Marpha and Mario

Marpha and Mario were recently here on Pilgrimage, they come from Cambodia their pioneering post, but Marpha is originally from the Philippines, while Mario is from Malaysia. They have a five year old son named Danesh whom they have left back home with Lola Nena, Marpha's mom.

Trip to the Philippine Embassy

On Thursday we went to the Philippines Embassy in Tel Aviv to get a Filipino passport for Enna-Marie. It took a little over an hour before we were outside again with her passport in hand! To compare: about five weeks ago we went to the Dutch Consulate in Haifa to apply for a Dutch passport, and we're still waiting to pick it up! Menchie also got a new passport in the process and she is now also officially Mrs. Schoot! Afterwards, we went to IKEA and bought some stuff for home.

Here are couple of pictures of the Embassy at its new location by the Yarkon river in Tel Aviv and some shots of the Schoot family shopping.

Recent Visitors...

Nanay Alice Train from the Philippines is here visiting her daughter Vanesa. Back home in Manila, she was Mommy Ping's buddy in teaching activities, they went and visited the communities together...and now that she is in town, it is just nice to see and be with her at our place. Here is a picture of us together...
















Also the Kersten's from the Netherlands visited, they were all here on pilgrimage, and one evening we had them over for dinner in our home. The night before they left, we were able to see them again and bid goodbye..."tot ziens!"